TMZ is reporting that Brittany Murphy, who had long been said to struggle with drugs, died last night after going into cardiac arrest. Paramedics weren't able to revive her. The actress, who launched her career with Clueless, was 32.

Updates: TMZ has added to their original post that Murphy was first found unconscious in the shower by her mother and the paramedics who arrived on the scene quickly determined that she was in cardiac arrest. Meanwhile, another confirmation of the news has been reported at The Wrap, which spoke to an L.A. coroner's investigator who said: "We have a preliminary death report of someone with the name of Brittany Murphy." And, as Lindsay Robertson points out over at Vulture, Ashton Kutcher, who co-starred with Murphy in 2003's Just Married, has Twittered his condolences:

2day the world lost a little piece of sunshine. My deepest condolences go out 2 Brittany's family, her husband, & her amazing mother Sharon.

see you on the other side kid.

Murphy was no friend to the tabloids now reporting her death. A retrospective of some old items shows a contemptuous relationship detailing her involvement with suspected drug use. Earlier this month, a rumor about Murphy sabotaging a set, and after, her husband and her arriving at LAX with him unconscious surfaced:

The story changed a bit when news surfaced that Murphy was on a flight along with her husband because she was fired from her latest movie on which she was working. The production with whom she was working, fired her and at that time, she was in Puerto Rico with her husband Simon Monjack. He also reported that Twilight actress Rachelle Lefevre is her replacement.

According to Perez Hilton:

"Our source also tell us that Brittany was so pissed about getting booted from the film that she didn't want to leave Puerto Rico and had plans to sabotage the film. But here's the really inneresting part. Her husband, Simon Monjack, got into a fight with some locals, which makes us wonder: could there be a connection between this whole Puerto Rico incident and her hubby arriving at the El Lay airport ‘incoherent'???"

An appearance on Craig Ferguson's show back in April, when she imitated Ferguson's accent—uncomfortably so—did nothing to help these rumors. And eccentric appearances at Fashion Week before that, in 2008, were in line with what came before, and what was to come.

Two years after Disney executives nudged Brittany Murphy before a roomful of gathered press, then…
Read more Read more

Again, TMZ got to this first, and as it's been mentioned the only news agency properly reporting the item right now. This is the second time they've been first to the news of a major celebrity death (Michael Jackson's, earlier this year, was the first). The blurb:

The Los Angeles City Fire Department tells TMZ they received a call to a home in Los Angeles that is listed as belonging to her husband, Simon Monjack.

We're told Murphy was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

To die at such a young age of cardiac arrest could be a sign of either an underlying condition—or like many of the young actors we've seen pass away over the last few years—drug use. At the moment, there's nothing to indicate either of those things. But Murphy's history, both of recent and long before this, will at some point be taken into account.